Saturday, August 6, 2011

Books We're Excited About (and you should be too)

It might be the middle of a cool foggy summer outside the store, but inside, up in our buyer's office, the holiday season is well nigh here. Almost daily, sales representatives from publishers big and small come by the store to show us their wares, and what they are presenting to us now are the books we will be stacking up come November and December. Here are a half dozen books coming out this Fall that we think our customers will be most excited about. Feel free to pre-order anything you see and we'll have it waiting for you on publication day.

He might be a celebrity chef to the rest of the world, but to us he's the guy running that awesome restaurant on the corner of 22nd & Geary. Aziza's Mourad Lahlou shares his food and his philosophy in this lovely book, due out in late October. And good news: Aziza will not be closing their Richmond District restaurant when they open downtown.

Daniel Handler's first novel in a long time to be published under his non-nom de plume is written for the teen audience, but we think bigger kids are going to want to grab a copy for themselves. It is the story of the breakup of Ed and Min. Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up. Two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, a pair of ugly earrings, a comb from a motel room, and every other item collected over the course of a giddy, intimate, heartbreaking relationship. Best of all, these objects are all illustrated by Maira Kalman. Due in store right around Christmas Day.

There's a lot of buzz for this title due from McSweeney's in mid-November. It is the story of Miranda July's fascination with the PennySaver, that relic of classified advertising that seems to be a holdover from the pre-internet age. July tracks down thirteen folks selling their wares and tells their stories, along with photographs.

What else is there to say? We've had people asking for this book since rumors of its existence began crossing the Pacific a few years ago. At almost a thousand pages, this is Murakami as we haven't seen him since the magnificent Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. October 25 is the official pub date for this one.

Written in 1989 and found among Roberto Bolaño's papers after his death, The Third Reich is a stunning exploration of memory and violence. Reading this quick, visceral novel, we see a world-class writer coming into his own—and exploring for the first time the themes that would define his masterpieces The Savage Detectives and 2666. Should be arriving in late November.

Another big (over 1000 pages) ambitious fantasy thriller from the author of Cryptonomicon and Anathem. This one is the story of an internet virus that hits an online gaming community, and the violence spills over from the virtual to the real. Look for this one on Sept. 20.